I first saw The Ex in November 1986, in a pub in Oxford, before Andy Moor joined Terrie Ex on guitar.
I liked noise. But The Ex’s noise was about something, a crafted and constructed sequence of intense moments and sustained power; and there were spaces for the band to surprise themselves. On the way home, I felt like I’d been thoroughly told off, and I resolved to be a better person. This lasted for a day or so, but as a generation of listeners grew conditioned to the rock reflex, and driven into the stormy seas of free jazz and free improvisation, so it seemed The Ex did to, and my tastes, for one, have expanded under the band members’ ongoing influences.
Ken Vandermark is the perfect player to defeat the prejudices of free jazz skeptics. The Chicago saxophonist looks like a US Marines drill sergeant on his day off, here to do a Job Of Work. Vandermark does not play as of involved in namby-pamby philosophical negotiations with abstract ideas of transcendence. He has targets to meet and will achieve them by whatever means are most effective on that particular date. I imagine he’d call men Sir and women Ma’am, and I don’t want to know any different.
As we left a Peter Brotzmann performance at Café Oto last February, my wife told me Paal Nilssen-Love’s closing drum freak-out was the single most amazing performance she had ever seen in her life. As she did so, a man butted in for an autograph because I am a mid-table British comedian. The moment immediately compromised, my wife railed at me about how our relationship could not survive such rare epiphanies being consistently spoiled by these apparently unavoidable interruptions, and I had to spend the night at a service station off the M25. Nilssen-Love’s was the drum solo that nearly cost me my marrage. And that’s jazz!
Historically and musically, Lean Left squares the circle, two different approaches to the same end result meeting head on, accommodating without compromising, learning, and driving each other forward to excesses of profound absurdity. I was at the first of the shows documented here.
Jazz theorizing be damned. It was like being eighteen again.
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Rubyshoes, Twitter
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
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Anon, westhamonline.com
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Pirate Crocodile, Twitter
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Pudabaya, beexcellenttoeachother.com
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Dahoum, Guardian.co.uk
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Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
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98rosjon, Twitter
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Etienne, Chortle.com
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Guest1001, Youtube
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Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
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Alwyn, Digiguide.tv
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Cojones2, Guardian.co.uk
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FBC, finalgear.com
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Cyberbloke, Twitter
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Rudeness, Youtube
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Bobby Bhoy, Twitter
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World Without End, Twitter
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Neolab, Guardian.co.uk
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Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
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Neva2busy, dontstartmeoff.com
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Karen Laidlaw, Edfringe. com.
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Kozzy06, Youtube
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Aiden Hearn, Twitter
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Shane, Beverley, Dailymail.co.uk
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Fairy Pingu, Twitter
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Stuart, Chortle
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Tokyofist, Youtube
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Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
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Anon, BBC Complaints Log
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Slothy Matt, Twitter
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James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
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Tweeter Kyriakou, Twitter
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Aaron, comedy.co.uk
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Visualiser1, Twitter
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Chez, Chortle.com
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Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
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NevW47479, UKTV.co.uk
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Lenny Darksphere, Twitter
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Lents, redandwhitekop.com
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Keilloh, Twitter
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Microcuts 22, Twitter
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Contrapuntal, Twitter
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Deepbass, Guardian.co.uk
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Lancethrustworthy, Youtube
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Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
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Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
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Emilyistrendy, Youtube
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Johnny Kitkat, dontstartmeoff.com
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Tin Frog, Twitter
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Iain, eatenbymissionaries
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Syhr, breakbeat.co.uk
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Al Murray, Comedian
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GRTak, finalgear.com
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Peter Fears, Twitter
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Richard Herring, Comedian
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Hiewy, Youtube
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Joskins, Leeds Music Forum
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Anonymous, don'tstartmeoff.com
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Brighton Argus
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Meanstreetelite, Peoplesrepublicofcork
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Mpf1947, Youtube
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Brendon, Vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk
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Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
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Pnethor, pne-online.com
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Peter Ould, Youtube
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Jamespearse, Twitter
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Anon, dontstartmeoff.com
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Tweeterkiryakou, Twitter
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Len Firewood, Twitter
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Stokeylitfest, Twitter
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12dgdgdgdgdgdg, Youtube
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Anamatronix, Youtube
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Mrdavisn01, Twitter
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Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
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Joycey, readytogo.net
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Borathigh5, Youtube
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Horatio Melvin, Twitter
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Cabluigi, Guardian.co.uk
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Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
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Lucinda Locketts, Twitter
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Birmingham Sunday Mercury
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Clampdown59, Twitter.
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Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
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John Robins, Comedian
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Shit Crit, Twitter
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Sam Rooney, Youtube
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Nicetime, Guardian.co.uk
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Dave Wilson, Chortle.com
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Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
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Dick Socrates, Twitter
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Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
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Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
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Coxy, Dontstartmeoff.com
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Pudabaya, Twitter
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Mini-x2, readytogo.net
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Tres Ryan, Twitter
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Whoiscuriousgeorge, Youtube
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Leach Juice, Twitter
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Danazawa, Youtube
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Gabrielle, Chortle.com
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Gwaites, Digitalspy
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Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
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Sidsings000, Youtube
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Liam Travitt, Twitter
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Bosco239, youtube
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General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
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Anonymous, The Northfield Patriot
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
Carcrazychica, Youtube
Carcrazychica, Youtube
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DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter